MLB Baseball: Friday, August 9, 2013 at 8:10 pm (Minute Maid Park)

Matt Garza (R) (7-2) (3.086) vs. Erik Bedard (L) (3-8) (4.486)

TV: TXA21, CSN-Houston

The Texas Rangers take their winning ways to Minute Maid Park to face the Houston Astros.

Texas is hot again and Oakland is a bit cold which means the Rangers are back in the hunt for the top spot in the American League West. The Rangers are scorching hot as winners in nine of ten, behind stellar pitching and hitting which makes any team a tough out. The Rangers swept away the Angels in a 10-3 rout on Wednesday behind a hot offense and a strong effort on the mound from Alexi Ogando who gave up two runs over five frames for the win. The bats took care of the rest as thay amassed 16 hits and walked six times, with Adrian Beltre going deep and driving in three, while Mitch Moreland and David Murphy knocked in two each. Texas sends newly acquired Matt Garza to the bump for the 4th time when he faces Houston. Garza struggled a bit last time out in a 4-2 loss (ND) at Oakland where he gave up all four runs on eight hits in eight frames.

There are reasons that Houston owns the worse record in baseball and the usual issues are not enough scoring and pitching and a suspect bull pen. The Astros did get a great start from Jarred Cosart versus Boston but the relief corps choked it up and left the Stros staring at only a pair of wins in ten contests. Cosart gave up two runs in five innings and left with a 5-2 lead before Josh Zeid was touched for two runs and Josh Fields served up a three run bomb in the 9th to take the loss. In the process, the Stros eight hit attack came up short, with Robbie Grossman leading the way with a home run and two RBI's. Left hander Erik Bedard gets the ball Friday with the task of slowing down the Rangers. Bedard hasn't thrown the ball as badly as his record might say with three poor outings in ten starts but he is only 2-6 with a pair of no decisions.

I have to give the Rangers the advantage in most areas, while Houston has struggled with the bull pen killing them Wednesday. Advantage to Texas...

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